Husky Men's Basketball Blog

The last piece of the UW's basketball scheduling puzzle is now in place. Though contracts are not yet officially signed, the Huskies have agreed to play at Pitt in February for their final non-conference game. Pitt will then make a return visit to Seattle for the 2007-08 season.

The Pitt game this year will likely be televised on ESPN, giving the Huskies some much-sought-after exposure on that network.

The game will likely be played Saturday, Feb. 17. The Huskies are currently scheduled to host Washington State that day, but that game will likely be moved to Feb. 14.

Pitt will be a very good team this year as it has four starters and nine lettermen returning from last year's squad, which finished 25-8 last season, was ranked No. 16 in the final AP poll, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Bradley.

On top of games already scheduled at Gonzaga and home against LSU, the Huskies will have a much tougher slate this year than last season, when they finished the regular season with a strength or schedule ranking of 92. In 2005, when UW played Oklahoma, Utah and Alabama in Alaska and also played at Gonzaga and hosted NC State, UW had an SOS of 12, which helped the Huskies earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

• Football interlude - We're not officially starting our football blog for a few more days so I'll post this here for now.

Today is Pac-10 football media day and the poll is already out, with USC picked to again win the league - and the Huskies picked to again finish in 10th place.

No real surprise there. Until UW shows more on the field, that last-place perception of the program will persist.

By the way, UW coach Tyrone Willingham confirmed to reporters at the media day press conference that J.R. Hasty will be ineligible this season.